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Figure 1: Molecular binding between the human toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and lipopolysaccharide (LPS). LPS acts as an activator of this receptor.
Figure 2: Enlarged image of the molecular binding observed between the human TLR4 receptor and LPS.
New pharmacological approaches for osteoarthritis and other rheumatic inflammatory diseases.
Musculoskeletal diseases currently affect approximately 1.5 billion people specifically, osteoarthritis is the most common rheumatic disease. This pathology is characterized by the progressive degradation of the articular cartilage seen at the radiological level as a narrowing of the intraarticular space. Symptomatology include pain, stiffness, and inflammation in the joint. According to the World Health Organization, osteoarthritis is among the 10th pathologies that cause chronic pain and disability. Despite his high incidence, there is currently no effective treatment and only symptomatic treatments are available. Although this pathology is prevalently biomechanical, the presence of an inflammatory component contribution to the onset and development of osteoarthritis has been described. Moreover, part of this inflammatory environment is mediated by tissular innate immune responses (IIR).
Therefore, our group researches involved major inflammatory signalling cascades in order to study how to block them. In this regard, this research line explores new pharmacological approaches, either from existing drugs used in clinical practice or from natural active principles Thus, if these compounds show non-toxic anti-inflammatory activity, they could potentially become therapeutic tools to treat musculoskeletal pathologies.